Flaky Accounting on the March?

Updated Feb. 5, 1999 12:01 a.m. ET

"Chainsaw Al" Dunlap put a colorful face on funny accounting (or a funny face on colorful accounting) when he overbooked revenues for grills at Sunbeam. This alone cost Ronald Perelman, who had just taken a sizable chunk of Sunbeam stock in return for Coleman, $500 million. Then we had Walter Forbes, late of Cendant, and George Soros, who took a hit when Waste Management was forced to restate several years of earnings. In all three cases, market participants or the companies themselves eventually ferreted out the problem, and share prices were knocked down, punishing their executives in the wallet as well...